Mark Anthony Neal

Mark Anthony Neal is James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of  African & African American Studies, Professor of English, and Professor of Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies, and Chair of the Department of African & African American Studies at Duke University. On July 1, 2025, Neal assumes the role of Chair of Duke’s Academic Council, the university’s faculty senate.

Neal is the author of six books including Black Ephemera: The Crisis and Challenge of the Musical Archive (2022),  What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Public Culture (1999), Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic (2002) and Looking for Leroy: Illegible Black Masculinities (2013), and co-editor, with Murray Forman and Regina Bradley, of That’s The Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader (now in its third edition).

Neal has been featured in several documentaries including PBS’s Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, Netflix’s The Two Killings of Sam Cooke, A&E’s Right to Offend: The Black Comedy Revolution, PBS’s Gospel (Hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.),  Sly Lives (aka The Burden of Black Genius) (directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson), We Want the Funk (directed by Stanley Nelson)  and even portrayed himself in an episode of the BET scripted drama, Being Mary Jane, which starred Gabrielle Union.

At Duke, Neal directs the Center for Arts, Digital Culture and Entrepreneurship (CADCE) which produces original digital content, including the weekly 2024 Davey Award-winning video podcast Left of Black, (now in its 15th season), produced in collaboration with the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke. Neal’s next book Save a Seat for Me: Meditations on Black Masculinity and Fatherhood will be published next year  by Simon & Schuster. Neal is a member of the Delta Zeta Sigma Graduate Chapter (Durham, NC) of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.